Style gripping ruler



g- 1966 L. L. DE MATHE STYLE GRIPPER RULER Filed Feb. 5, 1964 INVENTOR. [ESL/E L 175M745 BY 5 I M42? ATTOEA/EVS United States Patent 3,266,157 STYLE GRIPPING RULER Leslie L. de Matlre, 2448 30th Ave. W., Seattle, Wash. Filed Feb. 3, 1964, Ser. No. 341,979 1 Claim. (til. 33l08) This invention relates to a ruling device and more particularly to a ruling device having a straight ruling edge and means associated therewith for gripping a style, particularly when the device is moved in a direction normal to said straight ruling edge.

An important object of this invention is to provide a ruling device in which a style may be gripped by light manual pressure applied by the user so that the style and the ruling device may be moved in a path without the style being displaced laterally from its position on the straight edge of the ruling device.

Another object is to provide as an improvement in a ruling device a style-gripping member which is loosely or fiexibly associated with the straight edge of the ruling device in such manner that the two may be manually closed together but will normally be separated a slight distance so as not to interfere with the movement of a style along the straight ruling edge.

A still further object is the provision of a simple mechanical means, easy to manufacture and assemble, and which may be used by draftsmen and others without requiring a high degree of skill.

These and other objects of this invention such as will become more apparent during the course of the following discussion are obtained in the device shown in the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of a ruling device embodying my novel improvements;

FIGURE 2 is an end view of the device of FIGURE 1 wit-h a style indicated in operating position;

FIGURE 3 is a cross-section taken on line 33 of FIGURE 1 with a style indicated in operating position;

FIGURE 4 is a perspective view of an end portion of a style-gripping bar and showing in detail the means by which the bar may be associated with a straight edge of the ruling device;

FIGURE 5 is a cross-section taken on line 5-5 of FIGURE 4;

FIGURE 6 is a fragmentary perspective view of an end of the device of FIGURE 1 with the style gripping bar, the style and the straight edge shown in normal position; and

FIGURE 7 is a fragmentary perspective view, similar to FIGURE 6, in which the style-gripping bar is shown disposed in nonoperative position.

A preferred form of ruling device with which my invention may be practically used is a roller ruler, as shown in FIGURES 1, 2 and 3. A ruling blade 10 has a straight edge 11 which, in the conventional manner is divided into centimeters or inches or as desired. Blade 10, at its rear has a downwardly open, generally U-shaped housing 14, which encloses a roller 16 mounted on bar members 18 at either end. Roller 16 is designed to revolve freely on the drafting surface as the blade I0 is moved in a path normal to the straight edge II.

In the form of the drafting device shown in FIGURE 1, a window 20 exposes a portion of the roller 16 and also exposes a spirally arranged mark 22 on the roller. The edges of the opening 20 are sub-divided and marked to indicate portions of inches or centimeters or the like. As the spiral mark 22 is caused to move during rotation of roller 16 a draftsman may read the amount of advancement of the straight edge 11 in one or the other direction.

The foregoing described rule is no part of this inven- 3,26 6, l 5 7 Patented August 16, 1965 2 tion. Suflicient detail is set forth to comprehend the utility of my improvement with relation to such a roller ruler. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that this invention may be rules, and the like.

Referring to FIGURE 4, a molded block 30 having a rear upstanding flange 32 and a rivet hole 34 where by means of rivets 36 the same may be secured to an end of blade 10. The rear wall 32 has an opening 38 through which passes arm 39 at an end of the bar 40.

Bar 40 is generally triangular in crosssection and, as best may be seen in FIGURE 3, has a longitudinal groove 42 from the under side. Bar 40 is normally displaced forward of, parallel to and in spaced-apart relation to the straight edge 11 of blade 10. In this; position, the arms 39 function as flexible or relatively loose retainers by means of their rearward ends passing through the openings 38. The ends of arms 39 are slightly hooked at 44 to retain them in the openings 38. In part for the purpose of strengthening the arms 39, a ridge 46 is formed on the upper surface of each arm. The rib extends less than the length of the arm, terminating on its rearward end in front of the opening 38 when bar 40 is normally positioned.

Bar 40 may be displaced from its closely adjacent positioning relative the straight edge merely by raising or tilting it in which case the ridge 46 tends to be depressed and then by sliding the arm 39 rearward through the opening 38. This condition is shown in FIGURE 7. As the bar 40 moves rearward, it contacts the ramp 48 which rises rearwardly and tends not only to wedge the bar 40 upward but to tilt the arms 39 downward.

Bar 40 is particularly useful when a draftsman or other user desires to draw a line perpendicular to straight edge 11 and parallel in the path of movement of blade 10 as to move it towardor away from the draftsman. To accomplish this, the user places his style, here fragmentarily indicated as a draftsmans pencil(.s) at the desired point on straight edge 11. He then manually, preferably with the tips of the fingers of the left hand, presses bar 40 toward straight edge 11. This causes a gripping action on the marking end of the style(s) whereupon the movement of the rule as described will cause the style to make a straight line mark at its chosen point on the rule. Should the draftsman then desire to draw a line at right angles to the one just drawn, he releases the gripping pressure of bar 40 on the style and moves his style to the left or the right, as may be required. He may grip and release the style quickly and as frequently as the circumstances require. Should he find that he wishes to move the gripping 'bar 40 out of the way, he slides it rearwardly in the manner described above, and as shown in FIGURE 7.

The rear surface 50 of bar 40 is preferably roughened slightly so that the tendency for the marking end of the style to move out of position is reduced to a practical minimum. Bar 450 may be molded so that its rear surface is slightly concave from end to end in opposition to the straight edge ll. Such concavity might be in the range of about 0.00 inch to about 0.005 inch. By this arrangement and because bar 40 is flexible in itself, when as would be normal, the draftsman applies pressure at about the mid point of bar 40, he will nevertheless be applying a gripping action near the ends as well as in the middle upon a style interposed against the straight edge of the ruler 10.

The rear edge of bar 40 which is normally juxtaposed with relation to the straight line rule edge 11 is marked with graduations as indicated in FIGURES 1 and 6. The graduations on bar 40 may be in accordance with any of several scales, depending upon the wishes of an applied to T-squares, drafting ass-e157 engineer or draftsman using this ruler. In one instance the straight edge 11 may be divided into tenths of an inch, 'whereas the graduated portion of bar .0 may be divided in sixteenths of an inch. Alternatively, straight edge 11 may be graduated in fractions of an inch, Whereas bar 40 may have millimeter and centimeter graduations. Under such, it should be apparent that, by reason of the juxtaposition between bar 40 and straight edge 10, the user of this ruler is thus provided with readily available and easily used conversion means whereby he may convert from inches to millimeters or from millimeters to inches or from tenths of an inch to sixteenths, or other similar fractions of an inch and so on.

Likewise, with the graduations at the sides of the window 241, they may also be oppositely graduated as millimeters vs. inches, or tenths of an inch vs. sixteenths of an inch, and so on.

It will, of course, be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications, alterations and variations may be made in the ruler disclosed herein in accordance with the needs of adapting it to special uses and the like. All such as fall within the spirit and scope of the subjoined claim are intended to be covered and protected herein.

Thus having described my invention, 1 claim:

As a ruling device, a combination, comprising:

A blade member having a straight ruling edge;

A bar located along the length and closely adjacent the ruling edge of said blade member;

An arm on each end of said bar extending transverse the adjacent end of said blade member;

Guide means near the rear of each end of said bladernember to slidably receive an arm and permitting movement of said bar toward and away from said ruling edge and on occasion to overlying relation to said blade member behind said ruling edge;

Cam means on said blade member operable to raise said bar as it is moved to overlying relation to said blade member; and

Means to guide and facilitate movement of said blade in a direction normal to its ruling edge.

Ret'erences (Jilted by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 937,501 10/1909 Young 33109 X 1,043,902 11/1912 Burdick 3342 1,257,683 2/1918 Defenbaugh 33-42 1,296,377 3/1919 Finstad 33-27 1,930,358 10/1933 Helmenstein 33-27 FOREIGN PATENTS 345,407 1/1937 Italy.

5,622 11/ 1894 Sweden.

LEONARD FORMAN, Primary Examiner.

ISAAC LISANN, Examiner.

H. N. HAROIAN, Assistant Examiner. 

